The exemplary embodiment relates to image retrieval. It finds particular application in connection with a system and method for ranking retrieved images based on aesthetic concepts, and will be described with particular reference thereto.
Photographic images are often collected and stored in large databases with tags which describe their semantic content, such as “sky,” or “flower,” or their aesthetic features, such as “happy,” “funny,” “romantic,” and the like. Such databases are accessed by a variety of users searching for suitable images to meet a particular need. A user may, for example, combine keywords such as “romantic” and “beach” in an expectation of retrieving romantic-looking beach scenes.
One problem with this approach is that aesthetic textual tags applied to images tend to be “noisy” and often do not express an abstract concept well. Thus, the retrieved results of such a search may be disappointing to the user.
Recently, methods have been proposed for learning and predicting some aesthetic value of an image, such as image harmony or human attractiveness. However, such methods do not lend themselves to widespread use by inexperienced searchers.